


and he told me i was holy

by Pomfry



Series: Fics for Friends [13]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Naruto and Shikamaru are very happy kids with one very idiotic dad, Not Realizing You're Married Until Your ANBU Guard Tells You So, Parenthood, background kakagai, but it's only pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 10:06:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19374517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry
Summary: “That was mean,” Genma tells him, and Minato wheezes in response. Genma sighs before disappearing again, leaving behind a threatening, “I’m telling your husband.”Minato abruptly stops laughing. Husband? He’s not married. He was married, once, but he hasn’t been in a relationship in years. Naruto, Shikamaru, and just the very nature of his job keeps him from actually pursuing a relationship. The closest thing that he’s had to a relationship is Shikaku and even then—Wait. Wait just onesecond—The door opens and Shikaku walks in, the line of his mouth amused and holding a stack of papers. “Mind telling me why according to Genma you were mean to Kakashi?”





	and he told me i was holy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VirusZeref](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirusZeref/gifts).



> For my dear friend Virus! Hope you like it my dear, and I hope it helps with that stupid heatwave in your area ( ˘ ³˘)♥

Minato’s jolted awake by something thumping onto his stomach. His eyes snap open as he swipes out with a kunai, a snarl ripping its way out of him, and there’s a yelp and a thud. Minato blinks the sleep out of his eyes, yawning even as he looks down to the floor. Naruto looks up at him, smiling sheepishly, and Minato sighs.

“Naruto,” he scolds, reaching down to pick his son up, “you know better than to surprise me.”

And he does. Shikaku drilled into both him and Shikamaru multiple times with Minato nodding seriously beside him. They tend to listen to Shikaku more when it’s about a serious subject. Minato would take offense—he _is_ the Hokage and they will answer to him one day and so they need to respect him—but Shikaku is better at stern parenting than him. Minato is the type of parent who laughs at the pranks and lightens the punishments.

“Yeah,” Naruto says, sulking. Minato clicks his tongue, poking his son’s stomach right where he’s ticklish. Naruto squeals, twisting away and gasping for mercy, which Minato gives none of. He needs to keep his reputation as a ruthless killer, after all.

“Dad!” Naruto whines, putting a hand on Minato’s face and trying to push him away. Minato narrows his eyes and scratches where the seal is. Naruto melts into a pile of giggles, and Minato grins, chuckling softly as he pulls his son to his chest.

“So,” he says into his son’s hair, “mind telling me why you jumped on me?"

Naruto scrunches up his nose. “Shikamaru said to wake you up. There’s a surprise.”

Minato raises an eyebrow. “Really now? What for?”

Naruto avoids his eyes, cheeks turning a light pink as he twists his fingers together. “...Dunno.”

Scoffing in disbelief, Minato says, _“Sure.”_

He’s about to probe for more answers when the door opens and Shikaku calls a, “Good morning,” with Shikamaru tucked under one arm. Minato sends him a smile, getting out of bed and throwing Naruto over his shoulder. Naruto huffs, kicking at his chest in protest. Minato ignores him with the ease of practice, and sends Shikaku a questioning look. Shikaku shrugs. “I don't know.”

Minato hums. “Almost kill Shikamaru?”

Shikaku sends him a sly grin. “Nope. You?”

“...Maybe.”

Shikaku laughs, turning and walking into the dining room. Minato follows, setting Naruto down into a chair next to Shikamaru when he reaches the table. Shikaku is already in the kitchen and starting a quick breakfast. Minato heads into the kitchen to get some coffee. The kids needs breakfast otherwise they’re whining about being hungry at ten, and that’s not something anyone wants.

They learned that from experience.

“Tea or coffee,” Minato asks as he looks through the cabinet. Shikaku normally has coffee but sometimes he wants tea, and when he doesn’t get what he wants in the morning he’s cranky for the rest of the day. It’s not something Minato particular wants to deal with.

“Tea,” Shikaku grunts, and flips over a piece of french toast. Minato takes the tea out of the cabinet and starts the coffee maker before filling the tea pot with water. He hands it over to Shikaku who sets it on the stove next to the pan filled with eggs

“How did the meeting with Fugaku go?” Minato says, leaning against the counter. Shikaku scowls. “Not good?”

“He won’t _listen!”_ Shikaku growls, setting french toast on a plate. “I told him that there’s absolutely no real evidence behind the rumors and that Danzo most likely spread them because we all know he’s obsessed with the Uchiha, but he won’t _listen._ ”

Minato reaches out and rubs a circle on Shikaku’s wrist. “Don’t worry about it,” he says softly. “Look, we’re close to finishing off his influence for good. The council members from the Sandaime’s generations are gone and ROOT is gone. We’ve searched the entire village and the outlying areas for any headquarters and there’s no evidence. He has no power besides his reputation and since ROOT was exposed the forces have lost trust in him.” He sighs. “But, unfortunately, there’s no undoing the damage he caused. We just have to move forward.”

Shikaku grits his teeth but concedes. His mind is too logic-oriented to do otherwise. Minato laughs, patting his arm before retreating to the coffee machine.

“DAD!” Naruto shouts. “I’M HUNGRY!”

Minato grins. “Hi hungry,” he yells back, _“I’m dad!”_

Shikaku’s groan of absolute pain is _glorious._

 

_—_

 

They’ve lived together for five years now. After the Kyuubi Attack, Minato was—aimless. The Sandaime was gone, dead from the seal Minato himself was prepared to die to perform. Kushina was dead, too, laying next to Naruto and smiling through the pain as she brushed her fingers across Naruto’s cheek before her eyes dulled.

Minato only survived through sheer chance. It’s something he knows full well. The village took it to mean that nothing could defeat him, that he was too much of a genius to really be cornered, but the truth is that if Sandaime hadn’t done the seal before him, he would’ve died.

On his bad days, he wonders if he should have.

Two weeks after the Kyuubi Attack, Minato was running on three hours of sleep, ready to drop, and close to crying. Naruto didn’t like Kakashi, sobbing his eyes out every time the teenager so much as held him, and Minato didn’t trust anyone else to take care of his son. He was trying not to fall asleep at his desk when the report came in.

Nara Yoshino was dead.

It didn’t seem possible; not Yoshino, who was strong and confident and capable. Not Yoshino, who was only on a routine mission. But the report was there, and it was the cold hard facts. Fast acting poison that her teammates were unfamiliar with. She died half an hour after they fought with the missing-nin, and they sealed her body into a scroll.

Shikaku, when he got the news, went silent. Shikamaru, not even a month old, had blinked up at Minato from the cradle of his father’s arms. Naruto, so small and fragile, didn’t even wake at the sounds of Shikaku choking back screams.

They were barely functioning without their spouses. Kushina and Yoshino were their pillars, their anchors. Shikaku was going through the motions of living and Minato could barely sleep, standing watch over Naruto every night to reassure himself that his son wasn’t going to die.

Kakashi had decided, another month in, that Minato needed someone. Shikaku was a perfect candidate. And now, five years later, they still lived in the same house they chose when they were still grieving with two babies depending on them to survive, and it’s—better. It’s a lot better. When one of them don’t have the energy or will to get up for the day, the other can take care of the kids, and due to their mutual acquaintances and friends they’re never lacking for babysitters. Shikaku has an entire clan eager to help, if wary to deal with the ever-energetic Naruto, and Minato has the ANBU he knows and trusts.

It’s been good. For all of them.

Minato opens the door to his office, stifling a smile when he sees Kakashi sitting at his desk, flipping through a file. That was another change, too. He pulled Kakashi out of ANBU six months after the Kyuubi Attack when he saw the way his student was sinking into self destructive behaviors and using ANBU as an excuse, and set him on the path to recovery.

They have a room in their house for him that he uses frequently. Sometimes it’s like they have another kid.

Minato pauses. They? True, Shikaku and him have been co-parenting for years now and both of their respective kids see them as parents, but that doesn’t mean they’re in a relationship. Minato wears his wedding ring on a necklace that Naruto likes to play with, and Shikaku made his into a bracelet for Shikamaru. They’re single, but widowed, and the mere thought of someone intruding into the life they’ve painstakingly built over the past five years makes Minato want to stab something.

“Yo, Sensei,” Kakashi says lazily, turning a page.

“Kakashi,” Minato returns, and plucks the folder out of his student’s grasp. Kakashi makes a small noise of protest that Minato hushed with a wave of his hand as he looks through the report. Not surprisingly, it’s the report of the mission Gai returned from last night. A typical A class mission all things considered, but Minato knows with the cold certainty that comes from losing someone that typical missions can turn deadly in the span of a single second. It’s just the world they lived in and Minato has come to accept that.

“Gai isn’t the type to hide injuries,” he says, eyes flickering over the paper. No injuries beyond a few scratches that were appropriately healed and bandaged up. “Why were you worried?”

Kakashi shifts uncomfortably. “He had a bad mission a month ago. He got—hurt.”

Ah. That mission. It was one that scared Kakashi more than Minato has seen him in recent years. Gai had limped through the gates, ribs broken and leg bleeding. Kakashi, when he found out, had flown into a panic, and had clung to Gai’s side even after the med-nin had cleared him for duty.

A frazzled Kakashi is difficult to deal with. Minato had inwardly commended Gai for adjusting to his shadow with all the grace a person like Gai could do.

Minato snaps the file closed and sets it down on his desk. “You should really confess.”

Kakashi’s ears turn red and he squawks, flailing so hard he falls out of his seat. Minato considers laughing at him before deciding against it; embarrassed Kakashi is cute, but Kakashi getting even is not something Minato wants against him.

 _“Sensei!”_ Kakashi wails as he shoots to his feet, making clawing motions in the air towards him. ”You can’t—just _say that!”_

“And why can’t I?” Minato asks, unruffled as he begins to sort through the stacks of paper that had piled up over the few hours he had been gone. “I’m your teacher.”

“But—you can’t—” Kakashi makes a sound resembling a dying cat and launches himself out the window. Minato watches him go before breaking down into laughter. Genma melts out of the shadows, watching in fond exasperation as Minato gasps for breath.

“That was mean,” Genma tells him, and Minato wheezes in response. Genma sighs before disappearing again, leaving behind a threatening, “I’m telling your husband.”

Minato abruptly stops laughing. Husband? He’s not married. He _was_ married, once, but he hasn’t been in a relationship in years. Naruto, Shikamaru, and just the very nature of his job keeps him from actually pursuing a relationship. The closest thing that he’s had to a relationship is Shikaku and even then—

Wait. Wait just one _second—_

The door opens and Shikaku walks in, the line of his mouth amused and holding a stack of papers. “Mind telling me why according to Genma you were mean to Kakashi?”

Minato slams his head down onto his desk. Kami dammit.

Shikaku waits a moment to allow Minato to collect himself before stepping closer. “What was that all about?”

Minato drags a hand down his face, already reaching for the paper on top of the stack closest to him. “I just realized something.”

Shikaku hums, setting the papers down before perching himself on the desk. “Troublesome.”

“Yes,” Minato agrees. “Now where’s the paper that details the trading agreement between Konoha and the large scale farm in the South.”

“The one that makes all those apples that Naruuto likes?”

“That’s the one.”

 

—

 

Shikamaru tugs on his pants leg when they leave Gai’s house after picking them up. “Barbeque,” he insists, and Minato shares a look with Shikaku as he bends down to pick the little Nara up. “Barbeque."

“Ramen!” Naruto hollers from his place upon Shikaku’s shoulders. “Pa, I want Ramen!"

Minato pretends to think about it, Shikamaru and Naruto nearly vibrating with curiosity—well, Naruto is, Shikamaru is only staring up at him with wide eyes—before he snaps his fingers. “How about we get some from both and eat in the park? After that we can get some mochi.”

The kids swing their heads around to look at Shikaku, faces pleading, and Shikaku heaves a sigh before he nods.

The ensuing shout of joy from Naruto nearly makes Minato drop Shikamaru. Shikaku huffs as he removes Naruto from his shoulders, setting him on the ground, and they share a look of _god our kid is so loud._

Naruto darts forward, tugging at Shikaku and Minato’s hands, saying something about ramen, and Minato lets him do it. His kids are here, they’re safe.Shikaku’s hand is warm in his, and it’s all he never asked for, but it’s enough to ground him. It’s enough to make him grin and laugh.

It’s enough.

 

—

 

(That night, with the kids asleep in their room and Shikaku reading on the couch as Minato catches up on some documents next to him, Minato says, quietly, “Do you love me?”

“Troublesome,” is Shikaku’s only reply, but Minato knows he means, _I do.)_

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is Pomfry, so come visit if you want (◍•ᴗ•◍)


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